Schools Open Monday; Drive With Extreme Care

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – Classes officially start Monday (Aug. 28, 2017) morning at all five Pottsgrove School District buildings, and if history is any guide that morning’s drivers can expect a heavy presence by patrols from the Lower, Upper and West Pottsgrove police departments. They’re determined to keep returning students safe.

Some units will be highly visible; others, not so much. The message from each is clear: children are back on sidewalks and streets, generally excited to be returning, and drivers should slow down and operate their vehicles with the greatest possible care.

Like others schools across the country, according to the National Safety Council, each Pottsgrove building has implemented specific drop-off procedures for the school year. “Drivers should know them for the safety of all kids,” according to the council website. “More children are hit by cars near schools than at any other location,” it said.

The council’s short list of best driver drop-off practices:

Don’t double park, because it blocks visibility for other children and vehicles;

Don’t load or unload children across the street from the school; and

Carpool to reduce the number of vehicles at the school.

And if history is again any guide, motorists who fail to heed school zone traffic laws will pay a price.

On opening day last year in Lower Pottsgrove alone, almost a dozen local motorists who should have known better but apparently did not were caught and cited for vehicular speeding, according to Police Chief Michael Foltz.

Township officers, who set up that morning outside Pottsgrove High School on Kauffman Road, and Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School on Buchert Road, issued seven tickets and four warnings to heavy-footed drivers. Later that afternoon, outside Ringing Rocks Elementary School, officers issued another four citations and three warnings to speeders.